Absentee MP Nadine Dorries ‘could be ousted from parliament by rule change’

Nadine Dorries has not spoken in the Commons for a year and has yet to officially stand down despite saying she was going to

Absentee MP Nadine Dorries could be ousted from parliament under a plan backed by the chair of the Commons standards committee.

Labour MP Chris Bryant says an 1801 rule preventing MPs from going "out of town without leave of the house" should be reinstated.

The rule change would force Ms Dorries to attend parliament or face a by-election, the Financial Times reports.

Ms Dorries has not spoken in the Commons for over a year and has been urged to step down – including by a local council in her constituency.

On 9 June said she would resign her seat in the Commons "with immediate effect" in protest at not getting a peerage in Boris Johnson's resignation honours.

But the Mid Bedfordshire MP, who continues to draw an MP's salary, is yet to follow through.

Now Sir Chris says that when MPs return in September it would be “perfectly legitimate” to table a motion saying MPs who fail to show up for six months must attend a date or be suspended for 10 sitting days or more.

Such a suspension would trigger the threshold for Ms Dorries' constituents to launch a recall petition again her, finally triggering the by-election she promised in June.

Ms Dorries has yet to follow through on her promise to quit as an MP (PA Wire)

The plan is outlined in Sir Chris's new book, Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament - and How to Do It.

“If the House nominated you, you had to attend. Thus when William Smith O’Brien refused to serve on a railway committee in 1846, the House had him detained overnight in the Clock Tower cell," he wrote

”A 10-day Commons suspension would trigger a recall petition, giving Dorries’ local constituents the chance to vote for a by-election.”

Rishi Sunak said this week that Ms Dorries constituents were not being properly represented while she remained in post.

The prime minister this week told LBC radio: “I think people deserve to have an MP that represents them, wherever they are.”

“At the moment people aren’t being properly represented.”